Joseph Brown was a pivotal figure in southern history and a prototype of a new breed of southern politician in the mid-nineteenth century-the hill country newcomer who was considered to represent the “common man.” As governor of Georgia from 1857 to 1865, Brown enthusiastically supported the Confederacy in the early years of the war, though he refused to sacrifice what he considered states’ rights to the interest of a Confederate victory. Brown was constantly at odds with Jefferson Davis concerning Georgia’s supply of Confederate troops and was openly hostile, to the .point of urging Davis’ removal over the matters of conscription and the suspension of habeas corpus. When defeat came for the South, Brown accepted the collapse of the old economic order as quickly as he did the loss of slavery and states’ rights. He advocated a new South and amassed a fortune in the development of real estate, mining, and railroads. He turned Republican and promoted congressional Reconstruction measures, temporarily losing his influence in Georgia. But in 1871 he rejoined the Democratic party and served in the United States Senate from 1880 to 1891. Here is the first full-scale biography of a man of meager education and limited political experience who worked his way from the North Georgia mountains to the positions of governor and United States senator. Drawing on previously unavailable documents, Parks captures the mood of Georgia as well as the personality of this astute and controversial politician.
At the beginning of the Civil War, Georgia ranked third among the Confederate states in manpower resources, behind only Virginia and Tennessee. With an arms-bearing population somewhere between 120,000 and 130,000 white males between the ages of 16 and 60, this resource became an object of a great struggle between Joseph Brown, governor of Georgia, and Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy. Brown advocated a strong state defense, but as the war dragged on Davis applied more pressure for more soldiers from Georgia. In December 1863, the state's general assembly reorganized the state militia and it became known as Joe Brown's Pets. Civil War historians William Scaife and William Bragg have written not only the first history of the Georgia Militia during the Civil War, but have produced the definitive history of this militia. Using original documents found in the Georgia Department of Archives and History that are too delicate for general public access, Scaife and Bragg were granted special permission to research the material under the guidance of an archivist and conducted under tightly controlled conditions of security and preservation control.
The critical northern antebellum debate matched the rhetorical skills of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in an historic argument over the future of slavery in a westward-expanding America. Two years later, an equally historic oratorical showdown between secessionists and Unionists in Georgia generated as much popular interest south of the Mason-Dixon line, and perhaps had an even more profound immediate effect on the future of the United States. With Abraham Lincoln's "Black Republican" triumph in the presidential election of 1860 came ardent secessionist sentiment in the South. But Unionists were equally zealous and while South Carolina—a bastion of Disunionism since 1832—seemed certain to secede, the other fourteen slave states were far from decided. In the deep South, the road to disunion depended much on the actions of Georgia, a veritable microcosm of the divided South and geographically in the middle of the Cotton South. If Georgia went for the Union, secessionist South Carolina could be isolated. So in November of 1860 all the eyes of Dixie turned to tiny Milledgeville, pre-war capital of Georgia, for a legislative confrontation that would help chart the course toward civil war. In Secession Debated, William W. Freehling and Craig M. Simpson have for the first time collected the seven surviving speeches and public letters of this greatest of southern debates over disunion, providing today's reader with a unique window into a moment of American crisis. Introducing the debate and debaters in compelling fashion, the editors help bring to life a sleepy Southern town suddenly alive with importance as a divided legislature met to decide the fate of Georgia, and by extension, that of the nation. We hear myriad voices, among them the energetic and self-righteous governor Joseph E. Brown who, while a slaveholder and secessionist, was somewhat suspect as a native North Georgian; Alexander H. Stephens, the eloquent Unionist whose "calm dispassionate approach" ultimately backfired; and fiery secessionist Robert Toombs who, impatient with Brown's indecisiveness and the caution of the Unionists, shouted to legislators: "Give me the sword! but if you do not place it in my hands, before God! I will take it." The secessionists' Henry Benning and Thomas R.R. Cobb as well as the Unionists Benjamin Hill and Herschel Johnson also speak to us across the years, most with eloquence, all with the patriotic, passionate conviction that defined an era. In the end, the legislature adopted a convention bill which decreed a popular vote on the issue in early January, 1861. The election results were close, mirroring the intense debate of two months before: 51% of Georgians favored immediate secession, a slim margin which the propaganda-conscious Brown later inflated to 58%. On January 19th the Georgia Convention sanctioned secession in a 166-130 vote, and the imminent Confederacy had its Southern hinge. Secession Debated is a colorful and gripping tale told in the words of the actual participants, one which sheds new light on one of the great and hitherto neglected verbal showdowns in American history. It is essential to a full understanding of the origins of the war between the states.
Terrorist groups attain notoriety through acts of violence, but threats of future violence are just as important in attaining their political goals. Force of Words is a groundbreaking examination of the role of threats in terrorist strategies. Joseph M. Brown shows how terrorists use threats, true and false, to achieve key outcomes such as social control, economic attrition, and policy concessions. Brown demonstrates that threats are integral to terrorism on a tactical level as well, distracting security forces, drawing police into traps, and warning civilians out of harm’s way when terrorists seek to limit casualties. Force of Words reorients the field of terrorism studies, prioritizing the symbolic, psychological dimension that makes this form of conflict distinctive. It expands the study of terrorist propaganda by detailing how militants tailor their threats to send the desired political message. Drawing on rich interview data, quantitative evidence, and case studies of the IRA, ETA, the Tamil Tigers, Shining Path, the Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, Boko Haram, the Afghan Taliban, and ISIL, the book offers practical guidance for interpreting terrorists’ threats and assessing their credibility. Force of Words is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the logic of terrorism.
